CBS has announced that the seventh installment of its house-arrested reality series Big Brother will be an all-star version, with viewers deciding which of the past players make it into the house.

Sort of.

Before fans get to weigh in, CBS and show producers will first whittle down contestants from the previous six seasons into a pool of 20, from which viewers will be able to select between 12 or 14 housemates to take their second shot at the game.

"This will be the most interactive Big Brother yet," exec producer Allison Grodner tells Variety. "Viewers will be getting involved more than in the past."

While producers didn't reveal in their press release Wednesday exactly how or when voting will take place--though the answers are likely online and soon--Variety reports that the process won't be entirely democratic, with producers retaining the right to up the dramatic ante by swapping out chosen players with those who aren't necessarily audience favorites.

Still, the increased audience involvement marks the first time the CBS show has allowed viewers to participate in the casting process.

While the method of how a player enters the Studio City, California, home has changed, the way they leave remains the same: The players themselves still have the honor of dismissing their fellow contestants each week. The grand prize remains $500,000.

Big Brother premiered on CBS in the summer of 2000 to decent ratings but poor reviews, prompting CBS to revamp the series from its Dutch origins. Big Brother has since become a solid summer performer for CBS.

Julie Chen will return to host the reality series' seventh installment, which will likely premiere in early July, taking over Survivor's Thursday time slot.

The first season is not listed on the CBS website. I find that interesting.

The main change was America voted off who was voted out of the house and now the housemates do. Obviously when America voted the nastier people got voted out and now the nastier people stay in longer (aka June and Allison)

CBS hated the first season of BB, and the only way it got renewed is if the producers changed the entire format, and that is the ONLY reason it was renewed for a 2nd season! The prodcers even hated season one, and it shocks me they are even thinking of bringing peope from season 1 back!

Variety reports that the process won't be entirely democratic, with producers retaining the right to up the dramatic ante by swapping out chosen players with those who aren't necessarily audience favorites.

So this means that we might not get exactly who we want in the house. CBS might be screwing us early...

CBS hated the first season of BB, and the only way it got renewed is if the producers changed the entire format, and that is the ONLY reason it was renewed for a 2nd season! The prodcers even hated season one, and it shocks me they are even thinking of bringing peope from season 1 back!

Rob

Its not the casts fault that the format was bad and all interesting people were eliminated early. But still there are prolly 6 good candidates (out of 10) for a all star personality wise: Will, Jordan, Brittany, Geroge, Josh, and Karen

Curtis and Eddie wouldnt be bad either.

The only real dud was Cassandra, and Jamie was a pagent queen but not as jappy, still she was one of the boring ones, she came across as fake.

"This will be the most interactive Big Brother yet," Grodner told Daily Variety. "Viewers will be getting involved more than in the past." While neither CBS or Grodner are yet willing to reveal exactly how the cast voting will be conducted, Variety reports that "it's expected producers will retain the right to cast some slots with past players who aren't audience favorites." Viewer involvement also won't extend to deciding who gets evicted or wins the final prize -- both will still be determined by the houseguests themselves."